Automated Determination of Expressions for an Interactive Social Agent

ABSTRACT

A system providing an interactive social agent can include a computing platform having a hardware processor and a memory storing a training content standardization software code configured to receive content depicting human expressions and including annotation data describing the human expressions from multiple content annotation sources, generate a corresponding content descriptor for each content annotation source to translate the annotation data into a standardized data format, and transform the annotation data into the standardized data format using the corresponding content descriptor. The content and the annotation data in the to standardized format are stored as training data for use in training expressions for the interactive social agent. The memory may also store a character remapping software code configured to receive data identifying an expression for the interactive social agent, identify a character persona of the interactive social agent, and determine a modified expression based on expressive idiosyncrasies of the character persona.

BACKGROUND

Advances in artificial intelligence have led to the development of avariety of devices providing one of several dialogue-based interfaces,such as GOOGLE HOME™, AMAZON ALEXA™, and others. However, the dialogueinterfaces to provided by these and similar devices tend to lackcharacter and naturalness. Moreover, these devices and the dialoginterfaces provided by the conventional art are typically transactional,and indicate to a user that they are listening for a communication fromthe user by responding to an affirmative request by the user. Incontrast to such transactional interactions, natural communicationsbetween human beings are more nuanced and include the use of nonverbal,as well as verbal expressions. Consequently, there is a need in the artfor an automated solution capable of interpreting contextual inputs inorder to determine naturalistic expressions for use by an interactivesocial agent in communicating with a user.

SUMMARY

There are provided systems and methods for performing automateddetermination of expressions for an interactive social agent,substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at leastone of the figures, and as set forth more completely in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a system providing an interactive socialagent, according to one exemplary implementation;

FIG. 2A shows a more detailed diagram of a training contentstandardization software code suitable for use in a system providing aninteractive social agent, according to one implementation;

FIG. 2B shows a more detailed diagram of a content descriptor generatedby and suitable for use by a training content standardization softwarecode, according to one implementation;

FIG. 2C shows a more detailed example of a Path-Functions-Extensions(PFE) classification suitable for use as part of a content descriptor,according to one implementation;

FIG. 2D shows an example of a data structure for storing training datafor use in training an expression predicting artificial neural network(ANN), according to one implementation;

FIG. 3 shows a more detailed diagram of an input module suitable for usein a system providing an interactive social agent, according to oneimplementation;

FIG. 4 shows a more detailed diagram of an expression determiningsoftware code including an expression predicting ANN and suitable foruse in a system providing an interactive social agent, according to oneimplementation;

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart presenting an exemplary method for use by asystem providing an interactive social agent, according to oneimplementation;

FIG. 6 shows a more detailed diagram of a character remapping softwarecode suitable for use in a system providing an interactive social agent,according to one implementation; and

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart presenting another exemplary method for use bya system providing an interactive social agent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description contains specific information pertaining toimplementations in the present disclosure. One skilled in the art willrecognize that the present disclosure may be implemented in a mannerdifferent from that specifically discussed herein. The drawings in thepresent application and their accompanying detailed description aredirected to merely exemplary implementations. Unless noted otherwise,like or corresponding elements among the figures may be indicated bylike or corresponding reference numerals.

As stated above, advances in artificial intelligence have led to thedevelopment of a variety of devices providing one of severaldialogue-based interfaces. However, the dialogue interfaces provided bysuch devices tend to lack character and naturalness, at least in partbecause they are transactional, and indicate to a user that they arelistening for a communication from the user by responding to a requestby the user. By contrast, natural communication between human beings ismore nuanced and includes the use of nonverbal, as well as verbalexpressions.

The present application is directed to automated systems and methodsthat address and overcome the deficiencies in the conventional art. Thesolutions disclosed in the present application advantageously enable theinterpretation of contextual inputs in order to perform an automateddetermination of naturalistic expressions for use by an interactivesocial agent in communicating with a user. It is noted that, as used inthe present application, the terms “automation,” “automated”, and“automating” refer to systems and processes that do not require humanintervention. Although, in some implementations, a human editor mayreview or even modify interactive social agent expressions determined bythe systems and using the methods described herein, that humaninvolvement is optional. Thus, the methods described in the presentapplication may be performed under the control of hardware processingcomponents of the disclosed automated systems.

It is further noted that, as used in the present application, the term“interactive social agent” refers to a non-human communicative entityrendered in hardware and software that is designed for expressiveinteraction with a human user. In some use cases, an interactive socialagent may take the form of a virtual character rendered on a display(i.e., interactive social agent 116 a rendered on display 108, inFIG. 1) and appearing to watch and listen to a user in order to initiatea conversation with the user and/or to respond to a communicative userinput. In other use cases, an interactive agent may take the form of amachine (i.e., interactive social agent 116 b, in FIG. 1), such as arobot for example, appearing to watch and listen to the user in order toinitiate a conversation with the user and/or to respond to acommunicative user input. Alternatively, an interactive social agent maybe implemented as an automated voice response (AVR) system, or aninteractive voice response (IVR) system, for example.

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of system 100 providing an interactive socialagent, according to one exemplary implementation. As shown in FIG. 1,system 100 includes computing platform 102 having hardware processor104, input module 150 including keyboard 152, output module 114including display 108, and system memory 106 implemented as anon-transitory storage device. According to the present exemplaryimplementation, system memory 106 stores training contentstandardization software code 120, expression determining software code130, and character remapping software code 140. In addition, FIG. 1shows interactive social agents 116 a and 116 b instantiated byexpression determining software code 130 and/or character remappingsoftware code 140, when executed by hardware processor 104.

As further shown in FIG. 1, system 100 is implemented within a useenvironment including communication network 111 providing networkcommunication links 115, human interaction examples library 110, anduser 118 in communication with one or both of interactive social agents116 a and 116 b. Also shown in FIG. 1 are distinct compilations ofannotated content accessible on human interaction examples library 110and shown as content annotation sources 112 a, 112 b, and 112 c(hereinafter also “corpus 112 a”, “corpus 112 b”, and corpus 112 c”and/or “corpora 112 a-112 c”).

It is noted that, although the present application may refer to one ormore of training content standardization software code 120, expressiondetermining software code 130, and character remapping software code 140as being stored in system memory 106 for conceptual clarity, moregenerally, system memory 106 may take the form of any computer-readablenon-transitory storage medium. The expression “computer-readablenon-transitory storage medium,” as used in the present application,refers to any medium, excluding a carrier wave or other transitorysignal that provides instructions to hardware processor 104 of computingplatform 102. Thus, a computer-readable non-transitory medium maycorrespond to various types of media, such as volatile media andnon-volatile media, for example. Volatile media may include dynamicmemory, such as dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM), whilenon-volatile memory may include optical, magnetic, or electrostaticstorage devices. Common forms of computer-readable non-transitory mediainclude, for example, optical discs, RAM, programmable read-only memory(PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), and FLASH memory.

It is further noted that although FIG. 1 depicts training contentstandardization software code 120, expression determining software code130, and character remapping software code 140 as being co-located insystem memory 106, that representation is also merely provided as an aidto conceptual clarity. More generally, system 100 may include one ormore computing platforms 102, such as computer servers for example,which may be co-located, or may form an interactively linked butdistributed system, such as a cloud based system, for instance. As aresult, hardware processor 104 and system memory 106 may correspond todistributed processor and memory resources within system 100.

Thus, in some implementations, computing platform 102 may correspond toone or more web servers, accessible over a packet-switched network suchas the Internet, for example. Alternatively, computing platform 102 maycorrespond to one or more computer servers supporting a private widearea network (WAN), local area network (LAN), or included in anothertype of limited distribution network. Consequently, in someimplementations, training content standardization software code 120,expression determining software code 130, and character remappingsoftware code 140 may be stored remotely from one another on thedistributed memory resources of system 100.

Alternatively, when implemented as a personal computing device,computing platform 102 may take the form of a desktop computer, as shownin FIG. 1, or any other suitable mobile or stationary computing systemthat implements data processing capabilities sufficient to supportconnections to communication network 111, provide a user interface, andimplement the functionality ascribed to computing platform 102 herein.For example, in other implementations, computing platform 102 may takethe form of a laptop computer, tablet computer, or smartphone, forexample, providing display 108. Display 108 may take the form of aliquid crystal display (LCD), a light-emitting diode (LED) display, anorganic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, or another suitable displayscreen that performs a physical transformation of signals to light.

It is also noted that although FIG. 1 shows input module 150 asincluding keyboard 152, output module 114 as including display 108, andboth input module 150 and output module 114 as residing on computingplatform 102, those representations are merely exemplary as well. Inother implementations including an all-audio interface, for example,input module 150 may be implemented as a microphone, while output module114 may take the form of a speaker. Moreover, in implementations inwhich interactive social agent 116 b takes the form of a robot or othertype of machine, input module 150 and/or output module 114 may beintegrated with interactive social agent 116 b rather than withcomputing platform 102. In other words, in some implementations,interactive social agent 116 b may include input module 150 and/oroutput module 114.

Although FIG. 1 shows user 118 as a single user, that representation toois provided merely for conceptual clarity. More generally, user 118 maycorrespond to multiple users concurrently engaged in communication withone or both of interactive social agents 116 a and 116 b via system 100.

FIG. 2A shows exemplary training content standardization software code220 suitable for execution by hardware processor 104 of system 100, inFIG. 1, according to one implementation. As shown in FIG. 2A, trainingcontent standardization software code 220 may include content analysismodule 222 and data storage module 224. As further shown in FIG. 2A,content analysis module 222 is configured to receive content 221 a, 221b, 221 c from respective content annotation sources or corpora 212 a,212 b, and 212 c. It is noted that content 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c maydepict human expressions and may include annotation data describing thehuman expressions. Content analysis module 222 is further configured togenerate descriptors 260 a, 260 b, and 260 c corresponding respectivelyto corpora 212 a, 212 b, and 212 c. It is noted that descriptors 260 a,260 b, and 260 c are described in greater detail below. As also shown inFIG. 2A, data storage module 224 of training content standardizationsoftware code 220 includes descriptors database 226 and trainingdatabase 228 including training data 280.

Training content standardization software code 220 corresponds ingeneral to training content standardization software code 120, in FIG.1, and those corresponding features may share any of the characteristicsattributed to either corresponding feature by the present disclosure.That is to say, like training content standardization software code 220,training content standardization software code 120 may include featurescorresponding respectively to content analysis module 222 for generatingdescriptors 260 a, 260 b, and 260 c, and data storage module 224including descriptors database 226 and training database 228 storingtraining data 280. In addition, corpora 212 a, 212 b, and 212 ccorrespond respectively in general to corpora 112 a, 112 b, and 112 c,in FIG. 1, and those corresponding features may share any of thecharacteristics attributed to either corresponding feature by thepresent disclosure.

With respect to the functionality of training content standardizationsoftware code 120/220, it is noted that there are numerous existingcorpora of human expressions and human-to-human interactions that could,in principle, be used for training data-driven models, such as theexpression predicting artificial neural network (ANN) included inexpression determining software code 130 and discussed below. However,existing corpora have been collected using different methods and atdifferent times. As a result, existing corpora may include differentrecorded features (e.g., some are audio only, some are video only, andso forth) and different derived annotation labels, despite recording thesame basic conversational phenomena. Consequently, it is typicallychallenging and costly to incorporate all desired sources of annotatedcontent for training multi-modal data-driven models. In fact, accordingto the conventional art, use of multiple corpora tends to requirebeginning anew from the raw data level for each corpus, in order toredefine and rederive the higher level concepts of interest.

Training content standardization software code 120/220 advantageouslyresolves this problem in the conventional art by enabling selection offeatures across disparate corpora in a standardized manner, producinguniform features upon which data-driven models can be trained. That isto say, with a minimal definition of the contents of various corpora,training content standardization software code 120/220 can extractselected features from those corpora in a standardized format for use asto training data 280.

In some implementations, training content standardization software code120/220 can be selectively used in an “expert” mode or in an “advisor”mode. When used in “expert” mode, training content standardizationsoftware code 120/220 can reflect the understanding and preferences of aparticular human programmer for the features that are most relevant totheir training needs. When used in “advisor” mode, training contentstandardization software code 120/220 can use basic statisticaltechniques to examine correlations among the labeled data sets includedin corpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c, and proposes labelequivalences and distinctions of which the programmer may be unaware.Both expert mode and advisor mode enable high-level control over theselection of data from multiple existing corpora for the purpose oftraining new data-driven models.

For example, in advisor mode, statistical data, such as means andstandard deviations for segment lengths can be derived for all existinglabels in the datasets that are loaded. These distributions can then becompared to establish which labels have a high likelihood of capturingphenomena from the same population. To further verify the accuracy ofthis prediction, machine learning pipelines can be used to examinewhether combining the candidate homologues produces an improvement inthe prediction. That is, if feature 1 of corpus 112 a/212 a, feature 3of corpus 112 b/212 b, feature 8 of corpus 112 c/212 c are predicted tobe the same underlying expressive feature in each corpus, then atraining and testing protocol sampling from data in all of 112 a/212 a,112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c should do better on prediction than any offeature 1 of corpus 112 a/212 a, feature 3 of corpus 112 b/212 b, orfeature 8 of corpus 112 c/212 c alone, can do on any subset of corpora112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c, assuming the same trainingand testing protocol.

FIG. 2B shows a more detailed diagram of content descriptor 260generated by and suitable for use by training content standardizationsoftware code 120/220, according to one implementation. It is noted thatdescriptor 260 corresponds in general to any or all of descriptors 260a, 260 b, and 260 c, in FIG. 2A. Thus, descriptors 260 a, 260 b, and 260c may share any of the characteristics attributed to descriptor 260 bythe present disclosure, and vice versa.

As shown in FIG. 2B, descriptor 260 includes classifications including aparticular corpus identifier 262, filename 264, modalities 266, featuresrepresented by Path-Features-Extensions (PFEs) 270, and label sets 268that refer to a group of values about a label type, for example,“smiles.” It is noted that, in some implementations, label sets 268 maybe represented by dictionaries. However, in other implementations, labelsets 268 may be represented by other data structures.

As noted above, the annotated content available from human interactionsexample library 110 can include content in different corpora 112 a/212a, 112 b/212 b, 112 c/212 c which themselves may contain different typesof data. As a result, it may be advantageous or desirable to use theclassifications included in descriptor 260 to describe the data asfollows:

Corpus Identifier 262 can be a single string that is linked to severalmodalities and to filename 264.

Filename 264 can be a single string that is linked to a corpus,designating a data file in which the data are going to be stored.

Modalities 266 can be a list of strings describing the nature of thedata (e.g., “audio”, “video”,“mfcc_laugh”, “33_facial_landmarks”, and soforth). Each of modalities 266 is linked to a PFE.

PFEs 270: The Path-Functions-Extensions class describes the content of amodality. Each PFE can contain three main attributes: (1) a list ofpaths to the data concerned, (2) a list of extensions, and (3) a list offunctions that will be used to process the files in the path+extension.The functions can be defined by the programmer.

It is noted that features within the content analyzed using descriptor260 are represented by a list of PFEs and the labels corresponding tothose features are represented by a list of label sets or “None”corresponding respectively to the PFEs, i.e. each features PFE mustcorrespond to either a label set, or to None if no label is linked tothe corresponding PFE. In implementations in which label sets 268 arerepresented by dictionaries, the keys of each dictionary are labeltypes.

The classifications 262, 264, 266, 268, and 270 are used to generate aninstance of descriptor 260. The function of descriptor 260 is to unifyeach modality in order to obtain a single object that will be used todescribe a specific corpus identified by corpus identifier 262.Descriptors database 226 can then be built as a collection ofdescriptors corresponding to corpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112c/212 c. Descriptors database 226 has a current descriptor (e.g.,descriptor 260 a), on which some methods are automatically applied andwhich can be modified, and stored descriptors (e.g., descriptors 260 band 260 c) that can be accessed and can be used to save the wholedatabase.

FIG. 2C shows a more detailed example of PFE 270 suitable for use aspart of content descriptor 260, according to one implementation. PFE 270describes data files by paths 272 and extensions 274, and describesextractions by functions 276. Paths 272 is a list of paths to thedirectories where the data is stored, while extensions 274 is a list ofstrings representing the file types of interest in the correspondingpath or “None”, in which case a global string automatically replaces“None” and indicates that all the files in path are of interest.

Functions 276 is a list of callables or lists of callables. The use oflists of callables is useful in managing the problem of imbalance in thenumber of feature files with respect to the number of correspondinglabel files, for example, when a corpus contains a single label file forevery three audio files or every three video files. In that case, forinstance, a list of three functions is used instead of a single functionfor a single label file to extract three different label arrayscorresponding respectively to each audio or video file. Functions 276are defined by a programmer of system 100. Each function may receive asingle parameter as input, i.e., the path to a single file.

According to some implementations, those functions 276 extractingfeatures from data files return two arrays, such as NumPy arrays forexample, in a tuple, i.e., (features array, corresponding time array).However, in use cases in which a time array is not required, the timearray may be returned as an empty array. In some implementations, thosefunctions 276 extracting data from label files may return a singlearray, such as a single NumPy array for example, representing a singlelabel. It is noted that functions 276 can be normal functions, classmethods, or any callable having no nested locally defined functions.

FIG. 2D shows an example of data structure 281 for storing training data280 shown in FIG. 2A, according to one implementation. As shown in FIG.2D, data structure 281 organizes data by corpora 112 a/212 a through 212n, organizes data within each corpora by modalities 266, and for eachmodality, segregates individual feature files for classification of itsfeatures, time information, and labels. Referring to exemplary featurefile 282 of modality 266 a of corpus 112 a/212 a, feature file 282includes feature dataset 283, time dataset 284, and labels file group285. Feature dataset 283 is further organized as feature array 286,while time dataset 284 is further organized as time array 287. Labelsfile group 285 includes first label dataset 288 a and second labeldataset 288 b, each of which is further organized as label arrays, i.e.,respective first label array 289 a and second label array 289 b.

In some implementations, data structure 281 may be saved as aHierarchical Data Format 5 (HDF5) file, for example. Moreover, in someimplementations, the contents of data structure 281 may be summarized inan Extensible Markup Language (XML) file. It is noted that in someimplementations, data stored by data storage module 224 of trainingcontent standardization software code 120/220 may be stored in multipledifferent formats. For instance, in one implementation, such data may bestored in the three file formats HDF5, XML, and Python™ shelve.

FIG. 3 shows a more detailed diagram of input module 350 suitable foruse in system 100, in FIG. 1, according to one implementation. As shownin FIG. 3, input module 350 includes multiple sensors 354, one or moremicrophones 356 (hereinafter “microphone(s) 356”), and analog-to-digitalconverter (ADC) 358. As further shown in FIG. 3, sensors 354 of inputmodule 350 may include radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensor 354a, facial recognition (FR) sensor 354 b, automatic speech recognition(ASR) sensor 354 c, object recognition (OR) sensor 354 d, and one ormore cameras 354 e (hereinafter “camera(s) 354 e”). Input module 350corresponds in general to input module 150, in FIG. 1. Thus, inputmodule 150 may share any of the characteristics attributed to inputmodule 350 by the present disclosure, and vice versa.

It is noted that the specific sensors shown to be included among sensors354 of input module 150/350 are merely exemplary, and in otherimplementations, sensors 354 of input module 150/350 may include more,or fewer, sensors than RFID sensor 354 a, FR sensor 354 b, ASR sensor354 c, OR sensor 354 d, and camera(s) 354 e. Moreover, in otherimplementations, sensors 354 may include a sensor or sensors other thanone or more of RFID sensor 354 a, FR sensor 354 b, ASR sensor 354 c, ORsensor 354 d, and camera(s) 354 e. In addition to sensors 354 andmicrophone(s) 356, input module 150/350 may be configured to receivemanual inputs from user 118 via a computer mouse or track pad, keyboard152, or a touch screen display corresponding to display 108. It isfurther noted that camera(s) 354 e may include various types of cameras,such as red-green-blue (RGB) still image and video cameras, RGB-Dcameras including a depth sensor, and infrared (IR) cameras, forexample.

FIG. 4 shows exemplary expression determining software code 430 suitablefor execution by hardware processor 104 of system 100, in FIG. 1,according to one implementation. As shown in FIG. 4, expressiondetermining software code 430 may include training module 432,expression predicting ANN 434, and character archetype database 436storing character archetypes 490 a and 490 b. As further shown in FIG.4, expression predicting ANN 434 may include detection stage 435 andprediction stage 437. Also shown in FIG. 4 are training data 480,communication 492 from user 118, and expression identifying data 494provided as an output by prediction stage 437 of expression predictingANN 434.

It is noted that although the implementation shown in FIG. 4 shows asingle instance of ANN 434 in the interests of conceptual clarity, moregenerally, ANN 434 may correspond to a single ANN or to an ensemble ofmultiple ANNs. For example, in one implementation, detection stage 435may be implemented as a distinct instance of an ANN that feeds intoprediction stage 437 implemented as another instance of an ANN. Thus,ANN 434 may correspond to one or more ANNs configured to operate in acomplementary automated process to determine expression identifying data494.

It is further noted that, as defined in the present application, ANN 434is one or more machine learning engines implementing respective machinelearning models designed to progressively improve their performance of aspecific task. As known in the art, a “machine learning model” may referto a mathematical model for making future predictions based on patternslearned from samples of data or “training data.” Various learningalgorithms can be used to map correlations between input data and outputdata (e.g., correlations). These correlations form the mathematicalmodel that can be used to make future predictions on new input data. Onetype of learning algorithm includes supervised learning algorithms thatlearn correlations between input data and output data from training datathat is labeled or otherwise annotated.

Expression determining software code 430 corresponds in general toexpression determining software code 130, in FIG. 1, and thosecorresponding features may share any of the characteristics attributedto either corresponding feature by the present disclosure. That is tosay, like expression determining software code 430, expressiondetermining software code 130 may include features correspondingrespectively to training module 432, expression predicting ANN 434having detection stage 435 and prediction stage 437, and characterarchetype database 436 storing character archetypes 490 a and 490 b. Inaddition, training data 480 corresponds in general to training data 280,in FIG. 2A, and those corresponding features may share any of thecharacteristics attributed to either corresponding feature by thepresent disclosure.

With respect to the functionality of expression determining softwarecode 130/430, it is noted that expression predicting ANN 434 may receivecommunication 492 in the form of verbal and/or nonverbal expressions byuser 118, and uses communication 492 to predict an appropriateresponsive expression by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b. It isnoted that, as defined in the present application, the term “nonverbalexpression” may refer to vocalizations that are not language based,i.e., nonverbal vocalizations, as well as to physical gestures. Examplesof nonverbal vocalizations may include a sigh, a murmur of agreement ordisagreement, or a giggle, to name a few. By contrast to the emphasis onnonverbal as well as verbal expression in the present application,conventional state-of-the-art systems do not offer a generalized way tomap between sets of nonverbal expressions.

According to various implementations, system 100 advantageously includesinput module 150/350, which may obtain video and perform motion capture,using camera(s) 354 e for example, in addition to capturing audio usingmicrophone(s) 356. As a result, communication 492 from user 118 may beconveyed to detection stage 435 of expression predicting ANN 434.Detection stage 435 of expression predicting ANN 434 may include amixture of convolution layers and sequential models. Detection stage 435may receive audio, video, and motion capture features from input module150/350 at the input layer and may detect different nonverbalexpressions with respect to time.

It is noted that the detection performed by detection stage 435 canoccur on a frame level or on an event level. In frame level detection,each frame is classified as a specific expression while in event leveldetection, an event or expression is detected as a whole. The occurrenceor non-occurrence of these events may then be fed to prediction stage437 for each time frame. Prediction stage 437 of expression predictingANN 434 may have an architecture similar to that of detection stage 435,but focuses on the task of generating nonverbal expression tags as atemporal sequence, thereby determining the expressive behavior to berendered using interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b. The behavior ofinteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b may also be based on otherparameters, for example, the type of the expressions, the rate at whichthey are produced, the trigger or triggers that produce them, and soforth.

The performance of prediction stage 437 is substantially dictated bytraining data 280/480 used for training. However, in someimplementations, interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b may assume thepersona of a known character, such as the persona of a television (TV)character, movie character, video game character, or theme parkcharacter, for example. In those implementations, prediction stage 437may also make use of the type of the character persona assumed byinteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b to determine the expressionidentified by expression identifying data 494. For example, one ofcharacter archetypes 490 a and 490 b corresponding to the characterpersona assumed by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b, for example,may be received as an input from character database 436, and may be usedto determine expression identifying data 494.

It is also noted that the character archetype on which determination ofexpression identifying data 494 may be based may not be unique to thecharacter persona assumed by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b.That is to say character archetypes 490 a and 490 b may be generalizedcharacter traits shared by multiple specific characters. Examples ofcharacter archetypes may include heroic, villainous, faithful,deceptive, and the like.

The performance of system 100, in FIG. 1, will be further described byreference to FIG. 5, which presents flowchart 500 outlining an exemplarymethod for use by a system providing an interactive social agent. Withrespect to the method outlined in FIG. 5, it is noted that certaindetails and features have been left out of flowchart 500 in order not toobscure the discussion of the inventive features in the presentapplication.

Referring to FIG. 5 in combination with FIGS. 1 and 2A, flowchart 500begins with receiving content 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c from respectiveannotation sources (i.e., corpora) 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112c/212 c (action 501). As noted above, content 221 a, 221 b, and 221 cmay depict human expressions and may include annotation data describingthe human expressions. However, and as also noted above, substantiallythe same or similar expressions may be captured as audio in some ofcontent 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c, but as video or still imagery in otherof content 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c. Moreover, different annotation tagsmay be applied to substantially the same or similar expressions amongcorpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c, and/or differentannotation tagging criteria may have been applied when producing corpora112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c.

Content 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c may be received from respective corpora112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c by training contentstandardization software code 120/220, executed by hardware processor104. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, in some implementations, content221 a, 221 b, and 221 c included in corpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b,and 112 c/212 c, may be received from human interaction examples library110, via communication network 111 and network communication links 115.

Flowchart 500 continues with, for each of content annotation sources orcorpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c, generatingcorresponding content descriptor 260 configured to translate theannotation data included in content 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c into astandardized data format (action 502). In other words, and referring toFIG. 2A, descriptor 260 a corresponding to corpus 112 a/212 a,descriptor 260 b corresponding to corpus 112 b/212 b, and descriptor 260c corresponding to corpus 112 c/212 c may be generated. Generation ofdescriptors 260 a, 260 b, and 260 c may be performed by training contentstandardization software code 120/220, executed by hardware processor104, and using content analysis module 222.

Flowchart 500 continues with, for each of content annotation sources orcorpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c, transforming itsannotation data into the standardized data format using itscorresponding descriptor (action 503). Thus, descriptor 260 a may beused to transform annotation data included in content 221 a into thestandardized format shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C, while descriptors 260 band 260 c may be used to transform annotation data included inrespective content 221 b and 221 c into the standardized format.

Transformation of the annotation data into the standardized data formatin action 503 standardizes annotations applied to a variety of differentcontent types, including audio content and video content. Transformationof the annotation data into the standardized data format advantageouslyresults in the same set of annotation tags being applied to the contentreceived from all of corpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c.Moreover, transformation of the annotation data into the standardizeddata format may also advantageously result in the same set of annotationtagging criteria being applied to the content received from all ofcorpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c. Transformation ofcontent 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c using respective descriptors 260 a, 260b, and 260 c may be performed by training content standardizationsoftware code 120/220, executed by hardware processor 104, and usingcontent analysis module 222.

Flowchart 500 continues with, for all of content annotation sources orcorpora 112 a/212 a, 112 b/212 b, and 112 c/212 c, storing the contentincluded in content 221 a, 221 b, and 221 c and the annotation datatransformed into the standardized format in action 503 as training data280/480 for use in training expressions for use by interactive socialagent 116 a or 116 b in communicating with user 118 (action 504). Asdiscussed above, training data 280/480 may be stored in trainingdatabase 228 using data structure 281, shown in FIG. 2D. Storing oftraining data 280/480 may be performed by training contentstandardization software code 120/220, executed by hardware processor104, and using data storage module 224.

In some implementations, flowchart 500 may conclude with storing oftraining content 280/480 in action 504, above. However, and as shown inFIG. 5, in other implementations, flowchart 500 continues withretrieving training data 280/480 from training database 228 and usingtraining data 280/480 to train expression predicting ANN 434 (action505). Training of expression predicting ANN 434 may proceed as discussedabove with reference to FIG. 4. Training of expression predicting ANN434 may be performed by expression determining software code 130/430,executed by hardware processor 104, and using training module 432.

It is noted that training content standardization software code 120/220enables the adaptive selection of training data 280/480 for use intraining expression predicting ANN 434. This results in the ability totailor the training of expression predicting ANN 434 based on knowncharacteristics of the input data. By training expression predicting ANN434 in this way, there is a commitment to having the same input featuresavailable at execution time. It is further noted that the featuresderived at execution time need not be persistently stored. Thus,expression determining software code 130/430 can be used to determine anexpression for use by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b incommunicating with user 118 based on the behavior of user 118, but maydiscard the raw data used to capture and detect the behavior of user 118as soon as that expression is determined.

Flowchart 500 can continue with detecting communication 492 directed tointeractive social agent 116 a or 116 b by user 118 (action 506). Insome implementations, as discussed above, input module 150/350 mayinclude keyboard 152 or a touchscreen display corresponding to display108. In those implementations, communication 492 may be received as aninput to keyboard 152 or display 108. In implementations in which inputmodule 150/350 includes one or more sensors 354, communication 492 maybe received as sensor data produced by one or more of sensors 354. Inaddition, or alternatively, in some implementations input module 150/350may include microphone(s) 356 and ADC 358. In those latterimplementations, communication 492 may be converted by ADC 358 fromspeech of user 118 received by microphone(s) 356.

Thus, as discussed above, communication 492 may be captured using one ormore sensors 354 and/or microphone(s) 356 of input module 150/350, andmay be conveyed to detection stage 435 of expression predicting ANN 434.As a result, detection of communication 492 may be performed byexpression predicting ANN 434 of expression determining software code130/430, executed by hardware processor 104, and using detection stage435.

Flowchart 500 can conclude with determining the expression for use byinteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b to communicate with user 118(action 507). As discussed above, the expression identified byexpression identifying data 494 may be determined by expressionpredicting ANN 434 of expression determining software code 130/430,executed by hardware processor 104, and using prediction stage 435. Asfurther discussed above, in some implementations, expression identifyingdata 494 may be determined based on a character archetype of one of a TVcharacter persona, a movie character persona, a video game characterpersona, and a theme park character persona assumed by the interactivesocial agent.

FIG. 6 shows exemplary character remapping software code 640 suitablefor execution by hardware processor 104 of system 100, in FIG. 1,according to one implementation. As shown in FIG. 6, character remappingsoftware code 640 may include character trait projection module 642 andcharacter personality profile database 644 storing personality profiles646 a and 646 b. Also shown in FIG. 6 are expression identifying data694 received by character remapping software code 640 from expressiondetermining software code 130/430, and modified expression 648 output bycharacter remapping software code 640.

Character remapping software code 640 corresponds in general tocharacter remapping software code 140, in FIG. 1, and thosecorresponding features may share any of the characteristics attributedto either corresponding feature by the present disclosure. That is tosay, like character remapping software code 640, character remappingsoftware code 140 may include features corresponding respectively tocharacter trait projection module 642 and character personality profiledatabase 644 storing personality profiles 646 a and 646 b. In addition,expression identifying data 694 corresponds in general to expressionidentifying data 494, in FIG. 4, and those corresponding features mayshare any of the characteristics attributed to either correspondingfeature by the present disclosure.

It is noted determination of expression identifying data 494/694 byexpression predicting ANN 434 is performed in a way that issubstantially agnostic with respect to a character persona assumed byinteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b. Although, as discussed above,determination of expression identifying data 494/694 may be influencedby the character archetype of the character persona assumed byinteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b, it typically does not take intoaccount the personality quirks or idiosyncrasies of that characterpersona. Character remapping software code may remedy the genericaspects of the expression identified by expression identifying data494/694 by accounting for those idiosyncrasies.

For example, where expression identifying data 494/694 specifies thefacial expression “smile” across three time units (i.e.,smile-smile-smile), and where personality profile 646 a of the characterassumed by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b describes a silly orgoofy character, the expression smile-smile-smile might be remapped tomodified expression (sillygrin-sillygrin-sillygrin) 648. By contrast,where personality profile 646 b of the character assumed by interactivesocial agent 116 a or 116 b is that of an evil villain, the expressionsmile-smile-smile might be remapped to modified expression(sneer-sneer-sneer) 648.

FIG. 7 shows flowchart 700 outlining another exemplary method for use bya system providing an interactive social agent. With respect to themethod outlined in FIG. 7, it is noted that certain details and featureshave been left out of flowchart 700 in order not to obscure thediscussion of the inventive features in the present application.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 4, and 6 in conjunction with FIG. 7, flowchart 700begins with receiving data 494/694 identifying an expression for use byinteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b in communicating with user 118(action 701). As discussed above, action 701 may be performed bycharacter remapping software code 140/640, executed by hardwareprocessor 104.

Flowchart 700 continues with identifying a character persona assumed byinteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b (action 702). The identity ofthe character persona assumed by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 bmay be received as data provided to character remapping software code140/640 by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b, for example. Thus,action 702 may be performed by character remapping software code140/640, executed by hardware processor 104.

Flowchart 700 continues with obtaining personality profile 646 a or 646b of the character persona assumed by interactive social agent 116 a or116 b, personality profile 646 a or 646 b including one or moreexpressive idiosyncrasies of the character persona (action 703). Action703 may be performed by character trait projection module 642 ofcharacter remapping software code 140/640, executed by hardwareprocessor 104, and using character personality profile database 644.

Flowchart 700 continues determining modified expression 648 specificallyfor the character persona assumed by interactive social agent 116 a or116 b based on data 494/694 identifying the expression determined byexpression determining software code 130/430 and the one or moreexpressive idiosyncrasies included in personality profile 646 a or 646 b(action 704). As discussed above, for example, where personality profile646 a or 646 b describes a particular silly or goofy character, data494/694 identifying the expressions smile-smile-smile may be modified toexpression 648 as sillygrin-sillygrin-sillygrin. Action 704 may beperformed by character trait projection module 642 of characterremapping software code 140/640, executed by hardware processor 104.

Flowchart 700 can conclude with rendering modified expression 648 usinginteractive social agent 116 a or 116 b (action 705). Expression 648 maybe rendered via output module 114 by character remapping software code140/640 of system 100, executed by hardware processor 104. In someimplementations, expression 648 may take the form of a language basedverbal communication by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b.Moreover, in some implementations, output module 114 may include display108. In those implementations, expression 648 may be rendered as text ondisplay 108.

However, in other implementations expression 648 may include anon-verbal communication by interactive social agent 116 a or 116 b,either instead of, or in addition to a language based communication. Forexample, in some implementations, output module 114 may include an audiooutput device, as well as display 108 showing an avatar or animatedcharacter as a representation of interactive social agent 116 a. Inthose implementations, expression 648 may be rendered as one or more ofspeech by the avatar or animated character, a nonverbal vocalization, afacial expression by the avatar or animated character, and a gesture bythe avatar or animated character.

Furthermore, and as shown in FIG. 1, in some implementations, system 100may include interactive social agent 116 b in the form of a robot orother machine capable of simulating expressive behavior and includingoutput module 114. In those implementations, expression 648 may berendered as one or more of speech by interactive social agent 116 b, afacial expression by interactive social agent 116 b, and a gesture byinteractive social agent 116 b.

Thus, the present application discloses systems and methods forperforming automated determination of expressions for an interactivesocial agent. As discussed above, the solutions disclosed in the presentapplication advantageously enable the interpretation of contextualinputs including nonverbal cues in order to determine naturalisticexpressions for use by the interactive social agent in communicatingwith a user.

From the above description it is manifest that various techniques can beused for implementing the concepts described in the present applicationwithout departing from the scope of those concepts. Moreover, while theconcepts have been described with specific reference to certainimplementations, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognizethat changes can be made in form and detail without departing from thescope of those concepts. As such, the described implementations are tobe considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. Itshould also be understood that the present application is not limited tothe particular implementations described herein, but manyrearrangements, modifications, and substitutions are possible withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system providing an interactive social agent,the system comprising: a computing platform including a hardwareprocessor and a system memory; a training content standardizationsoftware code stored in the system memory; the hardware processorconfigured to execute the training content standardization software codeto: receive a content depicting human expressions and includingannotation data describing the human expressions from each of aplurality of content annotation sources; for each of the plurality ofcontent annotation sources, generate a corresponding content descriptorconfigured to translate the annotation data into a standardized dataformat; for each of the plurality of content annotation sources,transform the annotation data into the standardized data format usingthe corresponding content descriptor; and for all of the plurality ofcontent annotation sources, store the content and the annotation data inthe standardized format as a training data in a training database foruse in training an expression by the interactive social agent incommunicating with a user.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereintransformation of the annotation data into the standardized data formatstandardizes annotations applied to a plurality of different contenttypes including audio content and video content.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein transformation of the annotation data into the standardizeddata format results in a same set of annotation tags being applied tothe content received from all of the plurality of content sources. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein transformation of the annotation datainto the standardized data format results in a same set of annotationtagging criteria being applied to the content received from all of theplurality of content sources.
 5. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising an expression determining software code including at leastone expression predicting artificial neural network (ANN) stored in thesystem memory, wherein the hardware processor is further configured toexecute the expression determining software code to: retrieve thetraining data including the content and the annotation data in thestandardized format from the training database; train the at least oneexpression predicting ANN using the training data; detect acommunication directed to the interactive social agent by the user,using the at least one expression predicting ANN; and determine anexpression for use by the interactive social agent in communicating withthe user, using the at least one expression predicting ANN.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein the hardware processor executes theexpression determining software code to determine the expression for useby the interactive social agent in communicating with the user based ona character archetype of one of a TV character persona, a moviecharacter persona, a video game character persona, and a theme parkcharacter persona assumed by the interactive social agent.
 7. A methodfor use by a system providing an interactive social agent, the systemincluding a computing platform having a hardware processor and a systemmemory storing a training content standardization software code, themethod comprising: receiving, by the training content standardizationsoftware code executed by the hardware processor, a content depictinghuman expressions and including annotation data describing the humanexpressions from each of a plurality of content annotation sources; foreach of the plurality of content annotation sources, generating, by thetraining content standardization software code executed by the hardwareprocessor, a corresponding content descriptor configured to translatethe annotation data into a standardized data format; for each of theplurality of content annotation sources, transforming, by the trainingcontent standardization software code executed by the hardwareprocessor, the annotation data into the standardized data format usingthe corresponding content descriptor; and for all of the plurality ofcontent annotation sources, storing, by the training contentstandardization software code executed by the hardware processor, thecontent and the annotation data in the standardized format as a trainingdata in a training database for use in training an expression for use bythe interactive social agent in communicating with a user.
 8. The methodof claim 6, wherein transforming the annotation data into thestandardized data format standardizes annotations applied to a pluralityof different content types including audio content and video content. 9.The method of claim 6, wherein transformation of the annotation datainto the standardized data format results in a same set of annotationtags being applied to the content received from all of the plurality ofcontent sources.
 10. The method of claim 6, wherein transformation ofthe annotation data into the standardized data format results in a sameset of annotation tagging criteria being applied to the content receivedfrom all of the plurality of content sources.
 11. The method of claim 6,wherein the system memory further stores an expression determiningsoftware code including at least one expression predicting artificialneural network (ANN), the method further comprising: retrieving, by theexpression determining software code executed by the hardware processor,the training data including the content and the annotation data in thestandardized format from the training database; training the at leastone expression predicting ANN, by the expression determining softwarecode executed by the hardware processor, using the training data;detecting, by the expression determining software code executed by thehardware processor, a communication directed to the interactive socialagent by the user, using the at least one expression predicting ANN; anddetermining, by the expression determining software code executed by thehardware processor, an expression for use by the interactive socialagent in communicating with the user, using the at least one expressionpredicting ANN.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining theexpression for use by the interactive social agent in communicating withthe user is based on a character archetype of one of a TV characterpersona, a movie character persona, a video game character persona, anda theme park character persona assumed by the interactive social agent.13. A system providing an interactive social agent, the systemcomprising: a computing platform including a hardware processor and asystem memory; a character remapping software code stored in the systemmemory; the hardware processor configured to execute the characterremapping software code to: receive a data identifying an expression foruse by the interactive social agent in communicating with a user;identify a character persona assumed by the interactive social agent;obtain a personality profile of the character persona, the personalityprofile including at least one expressive idiosyncrasy of the characterpersona; determine a modified expression specifically for the characterpersona assumed by the interactive social agent based on the dataidentifying the expression and the expressive idiosyncrasy of thecharacter persona; and render the modified expression using theinteractive social agent.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein thecharacter persona is a persona of one of a TV character, a moviecharacter, a video game character, and a theme park character.
 15. Thesystem of claim 13, further comprising an expression determiningsoftware code including at least one expression predicting artificialneural network (ANN) stored in the system memory, wherein the hardwareprocessor is further configured to execute the expression determiningsoftware code to: detect a communication directed to the interactivesocial agent by the user, using the at least one expression predictingANN; determine the expression for use by the interactive social agent incommunicating with the user, using the at least one expressionpredicting ANN; and output the data identifying the expression to thecharacter remapping software code.
 16. The system of claim 15, whereinthe hardware processor executes the expression determining software codeto determine the expression for communication by the interactive socialagent based on a character archetype of the character persona assumed bythe interactive social agent.
 17. A method for use by a system providingan interactive social agent, the system including a computing platformhaving a hardware processor and a system memory storing a characterremapping software code, the method comprising: receiving, by thecharacter remapping software code executed by the hardware processor, adata identifying an expression for use by the interactive social agentin communicating with a user; identifying, by the character remappingsoftware code executed by the hardware processor, a character personaassumed by the interactive social agent; obtaining, by the characterremapping software code executed by the hardware processor, apersonality profile of the character persona, the personality profileincluding at least one expressive idiosyncrasy of the character persona;determining, by the character remapping software code executed by thehardware processor, a modified expression specifically for the characterpersona assumed by the interactive agent based on the data identifyingthe expression and the expressive idiosyncrasy of the character persona;and rendering, by the character remapping software code executed by thehardware processor, the modified expression using the interactive socialagent.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the character persona is apersona of one of a TV character, a movie character, a video gamecharacter, and a theme park character.
 19. The method of claim 17,further comprising an expression determining software code including atleast one expression predicting artificial neural network (ANN) storedin the system memory, the method further comprising: detecting, by theexpression determining software code executed by the hardware processor,a communication directed to the interactive social agent by the user,using the at least one expression predicting ANN; determining, by theexpression determining software code executed by the hardware processor,the expression for use by the interactive social agent in communicatingwith the user, using the at least one expression predicting ANN; andoutputting, by the expression determining software code executed by thehardware processor, the data identifying the expression to the characterremapping software code.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein determiningthe expression for communication by the interactive social agent basedon a character archetype of the character persona assumed by theinteractive social agent.